Facebook prices IPO at $28 to $35 a share

(CBS/AP) Facebook said in a regulatory filing Thursday that it has set a range of $28 to $35 a share for the social networking company's initial public offering.

That price values Facebook at roughly $80 to $95 billion, shy of the $100 billion valuation that some observers had expected. The company disclosed that it would seek to sell 337.4 million shares in the stock offering. At the upper end of its pricing range, the IPO would raise up to $13.6 billion in what would be the largest Internet IPO of all time. By comparison, Google's (GOOG) 2004 offering raised $1.9 billion.

Facebook's amended filing with the SEC paves the way for the company to start its IPO "roadshow" next week, when company executives and its bankers meet with potential investors. The company is expected to begin trading by mid-May.

Facebook's stock is expected to price on May 17 and make its public debut on May 18. The IPO has been highly anticipated, not just because of how much money it will raise but because Facebook itself is so popular. The world's largest online social network has more than 900 million users worldwide.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who turns 28 this month, has emerged as a wunderkind leader who's led Facebook through unprecedented growth from its scrappy start as a hangout for Harvard students.

Zuckerberg will keep tight control over the company even after the IPO. He will control about 58 percent of the company's voting power, through stocks he owns or because other shareholders have promised to vote his way through shares that they own. This means he will have final say over the biggest decisions facing the company even after it goes public.

Zuckerberg will own 31.5 percent of Facebook's outstanding stock after the IPO. At the high end of the expected price range, this will make his holdings worth $17.6 billion. This would put him at around No. 33 of the Forbes lists of the world's richest people, above the likes of Dell (DELL) founder Michael Dell and Microsoft (MSFT) CEO Steve Ballmer.